"I write, therefore I am."

Patrick Rothfuss' The Wise Man's Fear - Grade: A+. AGH! WHY IS HE SOOOO GOOD?! This book was like literally 1000 pages and I just read and read and read them until there were none left and then I was heartbroken. Every word is necessary, every page is rife with story and excitement, and yet there's STILL SO MUCH he is keeping from us! I want to know all! I want to know now! One of the best books/series I've read this year, bar none. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragons of the Dwarven Depths - The Lost Chronicles, Vol. 1 - Grade: B-. If you've been following along, you know that I love me some Dragonlance . So when I discovered that they had, years later, penned a trilogy that took place in the MIDDLE of the original trilogy, I was apprehensive but excited. My mixed feelings proved to be with good reason. The storyline was a little shaky, but the characters I know and love were all there and all written properly. However, the authors seemed to have forgo...

James Dashner's The Death Cure - Grade: A. This is the third installment in The Maze Runner which, if you haven't started reading them, you should. Because they are pretty awesome. Again, I struggled to remember what happened in the previous book, especially some of the characters. I don't know if that's because they weren't developed well-enough to be memorable, or just that I suck at remembering. But again, Dashner is in his element, producing a heart-pounding, page-turning, gripping novel. As I got near the last 30 pages, I didn't want to keep reading, because THE END was coming! Nooooooooo!!! I don't WANT the end! My heart was racing for so much of the book. Dashner knows how to keep readers on the edge of their seats, that's for sure. I enjoyed this one alot. Rick Riordan's The Son of Neptune (second book in The Heroes of Olympus series) - Grade: A-. Another victory for Riordan. I struggled to get through this book at parts, but for the m...

C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle - Grade: B. Probably my least favorite Narnia book. SPOILER: I like the fact that Lewis brings everyone back, but not that the majority of them die. It just seems unnecessary and unhelpful. Also, the spirituality/christianity aspect gets overly-heavyhanded here. It's tolerable in the other books, but here it becomes a bit much, in my opinion. Turtle was happy to be done with the Narnias so we could get to the last book in the Chronicles Series, Dragons of Summer Flame . Sarah Southerland's Not Another Sarah: Avoiding and Escaping Abuse - Grade: ? I don't really know how to grade this book. It's written by a personal friend of mine about her true story account of being in and escaping from a very dangerous, abusive relationship. The account is harrowing, almost unbelievable in places, and gripping. I read the book almost in one sitting. Something intriguing Sarah has done is pair her account with a guide - "Everything You Need To Kn...

Somehow, someway this post got missed being published. I swear I wrote the thing months and months ago, the original draft was from Jan 31, 2011, but when I opened the draft there was no content! So I guess I failed on that one... James Rollins' Altar of Eden - Grade: B-. A co-worker recommended this book to me. I don't think the storyline was necessarily bad, just weird. Some parts of the book came across as too contrived for my liking. It took me a long time to get through this novel. Parts of it were slow, and then others held my attention raptly. I was up and down on this book quite a bit. Perry Moore's HERO - Grade: A. I didn't think the plot in this book was super-tight, nor were all the characters well-written and developed, but I'm going to give it an A anyway for breaking boundaries and daring to be different. This book is basically a re-invention of the superhero. The main character is gay, his teammate's ability makes everyone sick, and the girl...

Ordinarily I am adverse to more than one post in a day. I don't want readers going "ugh, he posts too much" and to stop reading - be honest. I do this with some blogs I have in my reader. If they are too inundating with posts, and the posts are super uber long, I glance, skim, or skip. And I'd hate for that to happen here. But I feel in this case it is justified. This post in itself is in many ways belated. It couldn't be helped. This is the first I could get to it. Brian Jacques died over the weekend of a heart attack . Which is heart-breaking. I literally stopped breathing for a minute when I found out. I'm still not over it and I've known for like four days. Granted, he wasn't one of my best friends, but he had a large part in my life (well, his books did anyway). I mean, in the time of this blog alone (very short), I read and reviewed 6 of his books ( 4 here , one here , and one here ). Here's the thing about Jacques: I can't go so far as t...

Clay Coleman's Revenge! (Book 5 in the Escape from Lost Island series) - Grade: B. Do I think these books are excellently written? No. Would I recommend these books to other people? Probably not. But they were part of my childhood and I enjoyed revisiting them. Are they engaging? Yes. So *shrug* Clay Coleman's Escape! (Book 6 in the Escape from Lost Island series) - Grade: B. I think I'm all out of juice on these six books. They're a decent read, but I can think of much better things to spend your time on. 'Nuff said. James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy - Grade: A. This book definitely gets my vote for your reading list. This book is a fascinating exploration of human consciousness and spirituality outside the definitions of institutionalized religion (I am in no way saying that institutionalized religion is a bad thing). A great read, very interesting principles contained within, with real-life applications. Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay (third book...

This post has been in draft form since MARCH. LOL. So YAY for having INTERNET!!! Now I can blog. With vengeance. While I wasn't internetting, I *was* reading. So here come a slew of books, watch for another 11 very, very soon! Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon - Grade: B+. I enjoyed this book, though at times I had trouble getting through. Was definitely able to put this one down, unfortunately. But overall liked the characters and the plot. Rick Riordan's The Titan's Curse (Book 3 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians ) - Grade: A. Rick Riordan bounces back in the third book of his series. I had no trouble with this book, and may even have shed a tear or two. The characters are becoming more and more believable, and I think I love them. Nicely written. Timothy Carter's EVIL? - Grade: A+. Not a sequel, or a series, but I read Epoch for Kerry when I was playing Intern. Epoch was a decent read, but EVIL? outdoes it by LEAPS AND BOUNDS. Hilariously brilliant, ...

Somehow I seem to have taken up reading almost purely books that are part of a series. Call it laziness? I dunno. I call it, hey that book was pretty good, there's another? Fantastic! Gimme, gimme. Heh... Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragons of Winter Night - Grade: A+. What I said before. Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief - Grade: A. I 100% felt like a 10-year-old prepubescent reading this book! L O V E. This book was...genius. The pacing was spot-on, the characters believable, lovable, AND validly humorous! Win, win, win. Let's just hope they don't screw up the movie. Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games - Grade: A. I'm not sure what it says about me that I like this book. I feel in a twisted way that makes me just like someone from the Capitol. Hmm. But wow! What a great read! There were slow parts and things that annoyed me, and an occasional unbelievable moment, but I let almost everything slide because the story was so grippingly wonderous. Jame...

Terie Garrison's WinterMaejic (DragonSpawn Cycle: Book 2, sequel to AutumnQuest ) - Grade: B+. As previously stated , I'm nervous about these because all 3 came out at the same time. In Terie's defense, this book wasn't bad. It didn't have quite the appeal as the first, and the plot dragged in places, but it held my interest. I read it in one sitting without putting it down (except to eat breakfast, and I was annoyed to do so). The main character, Donavah is bound by a spell and finds herself unable to speak or use her hands early on. Any of you who are familiar with my less-than-advertised writings will know I have a character I'm wrestling with in similar fashion, though my idea takes this one a bit farther. Still a good read, not a waste of time, and I'm excited to read the others. Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife (Dark Materials: Book 2, sequel to The Golden Compass ) - Grade: A-. If it's possible, I enjoyed this book more than the first. I ...

Alisa M Libby's The Blood Confession - Grade: B. Book 7 for Kerry. This book was super duper bloody, but in a believable, uber creepy way that reminded me of one of my failed attempts at a story that sort of became its own. I want to become a slightly psychotic killer after putting this book down. Just a little bit, though. But I don't have a castle. Or do particularly well around blood. Dang. Robert Rigby's Goal! The Dream Begins - Grade: B. Book 8, you know the drill. Wow! For being a mass-produced-with-cool-pictures-because-we-made-a-movie-and-now-want-to-make-a-buck book, this wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. There was even a plot. Amazing. And the characters weren't flat. It did bring back all my actual soccer memories, which involve my playing really hard and then always just being pissed because I suck at soccer but wish I didn't. Terri Farley's Phantom Stallion #6: The Challenger - Grade: D. Book 9 . Terri should be grateful...

I have finished Ender's Shadow . Yesterday, and it's been in my head ever since. I understand now. I understand what I missed, and where I got confused in my previous reading. Because Shadow is a parallel novel, I couldn't help but pick up Ender's Game and read over the last half again as I read Ender's Shadow . I loved the nuances, the differences, the similarities. I loved being able to see Ender form outside of Ender. Sometimes I wish there were a parallel novel to my own life. That which you see. I've been criticized recently of being too self-protective. That deep down I am angry, and vulnerable, and I use that to control and domineer others around me. That's why I have so many relationships that end in failure. I don't discount or negate any of this, but I hope I'm seen in a different light than this when you are around me or think of me. If not, I'm sorry. I'm trying to change. This is the way I see myself: I am a man who gives every...

So I was writing up a cute little post about what I've been doing in the last week, and talking about some books and whatnot, and realized that I started doing book reviews after my bout with Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game which was a really amazing experience -- akin to maybe one other book I've read -- as far as the brunt impact it had on my life when I read it (which would be Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev ). Realizing that my experience with Ender was not located here, I decided to rectify such an oversight. I pressed save on the other post I was writing (pictures and the summer re-cap coming soon! No, really, I'm not just saying that X.x I feel like the boy who cried wolf, lol), and decided to bring you this one instead. The post/essay itself is taken from a site that Gideon Burton, Liz Busby, Katherine Morris, Ben Crowder , Candy Eash and I engineered as an extension of the BYU Chapter of The Association for Mormon Letters back in early 2008. The si...